Macquarie Group has disclosed that its board member and former KPMG partner Michelle Hinchliffe met and socialised with several KPMG executives while the firm was competing for the bank’s lucrative audit contract, but said it had found no indication of wrongdoing by her.
The disclosures were made to an Australian parliamentary committee investigating allegations that KPMG partners misused confidential client information to help secure new business. Macquarie abandoned its plan to appoint KPMG as auditor last week and said it would retain PricewaterhouseCoopers instead.
Hinchliffe, a former senior KPMG partner who joined Macquarie’s board in 2022, was involved in meetings with KPMG’s then chairman Martin Sheppard through her role as a director of BHP. Macquarie also said she had social contact with other partners connected to the tender process.
One dinner involved KPMG partner Charles Hatchman and his wife. The bank said Mrs Hatchman had been unwell and could not attend, while Mr Hatchman briefly visited the restaurant to apologise for their absence.
Hinchliffe also ate with KPMG partner Patricia Stebbens and met UK-based KPMG partners through her directorships at other companies. Macquarie said the list provided to the committee was not exhaustive because it was not practical for her to keep a complete record of every formal and informal contact.
The bank acknowledged that Hinchliffe met KPMG executives directly involved in pitching for the Macquarie work. It said she did not vote on the appointment because of the potential conflict arising from her previous employment with the firm.
Macquarie’s audit contract is understood to be worth more than $700 million over 10 years, or more than $75 million a year. KPMG had been selected after a tender completed in late 2025 and was due to take over from PwC in 2028.
Macquarie chairman Glenn Stevens had previously dismissed concerns about Hinchliffe’s involvement, despite her long association with KPMG, as “silly talk”. He later announced a review of both the firm’s ability to carry out the audit and the way it had won the contract.
In its decision to retain PwC, Macquarie said it had concerns about KPMG’s capacity to deliver the audit after several proposed senior team members left the firm, as well as concerns about its culture and transparency. ([macquarie.com](https://www.macquarie.com/cl/en/about/news/2026/update-on-audit-tender.html))
The committee had earlier heard that former Westpac director Peter Nash resigned after the bank discovered he had socialised with KPMG executives while the firm was bidding for Westpac’s audit work. Michael Ullmer, Westpac’s chairman, told the inquiry that directors and those involved in the tender had been instructed to avoid social contact during the process.
Macquarie has been asked whether it was satisfied with the explanations provided by Hinchliffe. The bank had not responded by Monday, August 31, 2026.
